News archive

  • Ofgem tells energy firms: 'one last chance'

    22nd March 2011

    Dieter Helm, an economist specialising in energy regulation and a former government adviser, criticised the Ofgem demands as little more than a "sticking plaster". The Guardian March 22nd 2011

    Energy Regulation

  • U.K.’s ‘Big Six’ Energy Companies Face Crackdown

    21st March 2011

    ...return to the U.K.’s old pool system that was replaced in 2001 with the new electricity trading arrangements known as NETA, which then becameBETA when Scotland became part of the British power market in 2005 says Oxford University economist and utilities analyst Dieter Helm. Wall Street Journal, March 21st 2011

    Energy Regulation

  • RIIO: A New Way to Regulate Energy Networks Final Decision published October 4th 2010

    4th October 2010

    http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/MoreInformation.aspx?docid=116&refer=Networks/rpix20/ConsultDocs

    Energy Regulation

  • Financial Times: Expert points to window for fossil fuel tax

    2nd August 2010

    A controversial new tax on carbon has become politically feasible, according to an Oxford economist, who says voters’ resistance is being outweighed by the government’s urgent need to raise more revenue. Financial Times article

    Carbon

  • Green Energy Rush Hit by Headwinds

    21st April 2010

    From the Wall Street Journal: By Guy Chazan ..."Offshore wind is one of the most expensive short-term ways you can conceive of to reduce CO2 emissions," says Dieter Helm, professor of energy policy at Oxford University. "It's economic nonsense to put all your eggs in one basket like this." Read the full article HERE

    Energy Environment Europe Renewables

  • People power - a realistic solution to britain's energy crisis?

    24th February 2010

    “Individual householders becoming little generation plants and selling power back into the system is a wonderfully attractive and seductive idea,” says Professor Dieter Helm, an energy policy expert at Oxford University, who also advises the government. “We would all like to be our own power stations and make money.”   But Professor Helm fears this is an idealistic solution. This method of producing energy is extremely expensive because it’s unreliable, so it...

    Energy Environment

  • 'Carbon tax' is sensible, and perhaps inevitable, advocate says

    21st November 2009

    From the LA Times: Dieter Helm of Oxford says climate change policy should focus not on carbon production, but carbon consumption. A tax on carbon-heavy activities places the emphasis where it belongs, he says. By Henry Chu Reporting from Oxford, England <br /> With the global climate change summit in Copenhagen just a few weeks away, gloom has settled in many quarters over the increasing likelihood that a robust international treaty to lower carbon emissions is out of reach, at least...

    Carbon

  • Can You Have Prosperity Without Growth?

    17th November 2009

    From the New York Times: By JEREMY LOVELL of ClimateWire   LONDON -- Efforts to combat climate change will remain hobbled because of the failure of the economic system to give the planet's environment a value and actions that harm it a cost. Such a cost may violate the belief in unremitting consumption that many economists and businesspeople (and more than a few consumers) hold, but the absence of a price on carbon emissions is a situation that needs needs to be fixed urgently. That,...

  • German regulation threatens vital gas-infrastructure development

    2nd November 2009

    From The Petroleum Economist ...Dieter Helm, an Oxford University professor and adviser to the UK government on energy policy, criticises the EU for forcing through liberalisation before building the interconnections between national markets... Click here for the full article

    Europe Gas Regulation

  • Emissions reductions are misleading, says government's new science adviser

    1st October 2009

    Britain's reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases are misleading, according to the government's new chief scientist. Professor David MacKay told the BBC that greenhouse gas emissions created by Britons are probably twice as bad as official figures suggest. The figures are distorted because developing countries now made the goods that Britain buys, he said. "Our energy footprint has decreased over the last few decades and that's largely because we've exported our industry," MacKay said. "...

    Carbon Climate Environment